Tamera

by Fabian Ritter

Tamera – a place, a community, a lived utopia. The project started in Germany in 1978 and found a new
home in the south of Portugal in 1995. Over 200 inhabitants plus a various
number of long-term guests constantly live in this community – in the search
for free love, world peace and a holistic life in harmony with nature. Many of
the inhabitants have German roots and have lived in the community for more than
half of their lives. Some were even born in the settlement and don’t have much
experience in life outside of Tamera. The “Tamerians” themselves call their
place a “healing biotope”, which should be seen as a model for more settlements
in the world. The Tamera community has connections and networks all over the
world, doing peace work and sharing experience on research and community
living. The Tamerians see their “Healing Biotope 1”as a prototype, knowing that they are still not perfect
when it comes to self-supply of food, for example, which is self-sustainable up
to 30%. Furthermore, the community wants to stay dynamic in the future, giving
statements about current political or ecological developments and realizing
peace projects in crisis regions. Many visitors come to Tamera every year to
learn for instance about community building or the successful ecosystem
restoration using the principles of rainwater retention. The area is about 330
acres large and consists of different sections – the solar valley, a guest and
education centre, the political ashram, the children´s school, the stone
circle, many gardens and workshops. Tamera is admired worldwide by other
communities for having existed for over 40 years, while many other communities
fail or divide after the first few years. The basic principles of community
ownership, a strong open communication and the trust in their spiritual leaders
seem to be the main pillars for this success.